Hackers Attack Sony Over GeoHot Lawsuit

Sony has been mired in an ongoing battle with hackers thanks to GeoHot's Jailbreak shenanigans, but the company's aggressive legal action against the infamous PS3 owner has upset another group of hackers, that believes not all of their brethren are criminals. So, how is this anonymous hacking group standing up for the oppressed PS3 owners that want to use the Jailbreak hack for entirely honorable purposes? By breaking the law, of course.

Today the hacker group known as Anonymous declared its wrath against Sony in a press release superimposed over the image of a Guy Fawkes mask. The group takes offense to Sony's lawsuit against George "GeoHot" Hotz, who published the PS3's root key late last year, as well as the company's legal request for the IP addresses of anyone who viewed GeoHot's website. That latter legal maneuver earned the ire of the Electronic Frontier Foundation as well, but Anonymous is taking its disdain a step further. Ars Technica is reporting that the hacking group is waging Denial of Service attacks on the PlayStation Store and Playstation.com, which is down at the time of this writing. Anonymous is also encouraging its supporters to join in the attack.

I don't agree with Sony pursuing the personal information of Internet users who merely viewed GeoHot's website, but I can't blame the company for taking legal action to protect its products from a practice that will invariably lead to piracy, either. I also fail to see how Anonymous thinks it can prove to Sony the legitimate merits of modding a console by compromising the company's website and online store through Denial of Service attacks. Then again, I'm not an elite hacker, so what the hell do I know...